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Cable firms to FTC: We shouldn’t have to let users cancel service with a click — Customers may “misunderstand the consequences of canceling,” say lobbyists

Cable firms to FTC: We shouldn’t have to let users cancel service with a click — Customers may “misunderstand the consequences of canceling,” say lobbyists::Customers may "misunderstand the consequences of canceling," cable lobby says.

unreasonabro ,

so, just a thought, make it illegal for there to be consequences of cancelling

MapleEngineer ,
@MapleEngineer@lemmy.world avatar

They are going to offer your a discount to keep their service. Maybe if they had offered you a better price in the first place you wouldn't be trying to cancel. Making it hard to cancel so that they can offer you discounts to stay is a way to keep prices high for everyone else. It's a way to maximize profits. Why not simply put a one click, "cut my bill in half" button on the website?

Appoxo ,
@Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Because then they would have to cut it in half for everyone.
By making this a calling requirement the bar to access is higher in comparison.

AND: They are likely increasing customer satiafaction because they saved 50% of the bill with a simple negotiation call and maybe get new features on top.
The satisfaction wouldnt be high by clicking a button that may be just buried.

MapleEngineer ,
@MapleEngineer@lemmy.world avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    wikibot Bot ,

    Here's the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

    A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral entrepreneurs and mass media coverage, and exacerbated by politicians and lawmakers. Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling the community. Stanley Cohen, who developed the term, states that moral panic happens when "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests". While the issues identified may be real, the claims "exaggerate the seriousness, extent, typicality and/or inevitability of harm".

    ^to^ ^opt^ ^out^^,^ ^pm^ ^me^ ^'optout'.^
    ^article^ ^|^ ^about^

    ook_the_librarian ,
    @ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world avatar

    Maybe the "rhetorical question" article link would article would be a better reply. I bet you weren't expecting an analysis of why the half-price button idea was a nonstarter.

    MapleEngineer ,
    @MapleEngineer@lemmy.world avatar

    I replied to the wrong comment on the wrong post.

    squid_slime ,
    @squid_slime@lemmy.world avatar

    Easy solution.. Make it clear, write a prompt "are you sure you want to cancel your cable service? Please don't? 🫣"

    menthol ,

    If you cancel your subscription you're a subclass idiot, you might not even be competent... so sad... We need to fight these attempts to unsubscribe.

    If you're subscribed you're among the genius class. Just keep paying and don't think about it, even if you haven't watched in months and forgot you are paying. You're not misunderstanding anything.

    Makeitstop , (edited )

    Sending a notification that a renewal is coming up? Impossible, will cost a fortune.

    Sending mountains of junk mail offering bundles and limited time offers? Clearly much cheaper and easier.

    Also, think of the labor costs, retraining the call center staff to not spend hours trying to talk people out of canceling and instead just having them hit a button. Why, that's got to force a price hike.

    Th3D3k0y ,

    Our profit margins are hurting due to young people not wanting to work and not fully understanding the gift, the boon, the euphoria of owning a TV and paying for services you don't use. This has nothing to do with our prices, lack of customer service, or our programming being flooded with repetitive drivel.

    Buddahriffic ,

    Hey now, I own a TV and pay for services I don't use. Just not cable. I can't justify spending that much on something I don't use. $15 isn't bad, but a decent cable package is like $100 last I checked and it's still chock full of ads.

    Gamepass has no ads, plus the added benefit of every now and then opening it up to see it has some of the games I just bought on Steam, which is a sign that they have good taste.

    Copernican ,

    The real hurdle for me is the cost of leasing a cable box and other service fees. Cable bundles sound good on paper until I factor that cost in.

    ABCDE ,

    'We shouldn't have to let users sign up with a click'.

    Tylerdurdon ,

    Thank goodness those lobbyists are looking out for us and our easily confused little brains. Perhaps if we're so easily confused, they should lobby to get rid of the fine print and simplify those contracts while they're at it. Oh... Wait... Not that.

    squid_slime ,
    @squid_slime@lemmy.world avatar

    The writing is tiny to not confuse us with the big words.

    Frozzie ,
    @Frozzie@lemmy.world avatar

    That's like the dairy lobbyists not wanting the vegetable milk products to feature the word "milk" because people might buy them by accident.

    TheBat ,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    I agree with them. I don't want to buy

    Vegetable Milk only to find out it's not a dairy product.

    Frozzie ,
    @Frozzie@lemmy.world avatar

    It's clearly written on them in big caps "soy" or "oat". If you buy it by "accident", it's your fault.

    MeekerThanBeaker ,

    Wait... but I always drink plenty of... (checks label) ...Malk?

    squid_slime ,
    @squid_slime@lemmy.world avatar

    We should aim for the middle and call it "cow nipple juice" soy can be "soy white water"

    Bocky ,

    That’s exactly the point. There should not be any consequences for cancelling a monthly subscription.

    GoodEye8 ,

    There should be some consequences, like stopping monthly payment requests.

    EdibleFriend ,
    @EdibleFriend@lemmy.world avatar

    And then they will pay the FTC and they will say this is acceptable.

    The End.

    BearOfaTime , (edited )

    Pay?

    The lobbyists and politicians are all part of it.

    Regulatory Capture

    ripcord ,
    @ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

    Part of what, the FTC?

    MiDaBa ,

    Where they see consequence I see benefit.

    PunnyName ,

    And where they see benefit, we see consequences.

    db2 ,

    This crap is why I haven't had cable in over a decade.

    rockSlayer ,

    And the FTC is about 30 years late on considering these regulations.

    mosiacmango , (edited )

    The Biden admin appointed a serious badass to head it, Lina Khan. While at Yale she made waves by vivisecting Amazons buisness practices, basically redefining how America should handle antitrust laws with digital platforms.

    Shes basically a rabble rousing anti-monopolist who has blocked a record number of mergers. It's why the FTC is hitting hard at all of these industries at once.

    wikibot Bot ,

    Here's the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

    Lina M. Khan (born March 3, 1989) is a British-born American legal scholar serving as chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since 2021. She is also an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School.
    While a student at Yale Law School, she became known for her work in antitrust and competition law in the United States after publishing the influential essay "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox". She was nominated by President Joe Biden to the Commission in March 2021, and has served since June 2021 following her confirmation.

    ^to^ ^opt^ ^out^^,^ ^pm^ ^me^ ^'optout'.^
    ^article^ ^|^ ^about^

    DacoTaco ,
    @DacoTaco@lemmy.world avatar

    About 20. Belgium has had these laws for around 18 years now because switching mobile provider was shit and it was found to not support competition within the mobile market ( no shit ! ).
    At the same time they forced mobile providers to allow other providers to use their network infrastructure so new providers could be made without needing to make their own network infrastructure

    ZeroCool ,
    @ZeroCool@slrpnk.net avatar

    "The proposed simple click-to-cancel mechanism may not be so simple when such practices are involved. A consumer may easily misunderstand the consequences of canceling and it may be imperative that they learn about better options," NCTA CEO Michael Powell said at the hearing. For example, a customer "may face difficulty and unintended consequences if they want to cancel only one service in the package," as "canceling part of a discounted bundle may increase the price for remaining services."

    This sounds like a "you" problem. If your service were any good this wouldn't be a concern because nobody would have a reason to reach that page. Take those discounted bundles and fuck right off.

    beckerist ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    ZeroCool ,
    @ZeroCool@slrpnk.net avatar

    Yep, it's a terrible argument but it's the only one they've got. They can't admit the easier it is to cancel service the more customers they'll lose. Nor can they say that the cable industry has spent a fortune researching how to make canceling service just frustrating enough that people will put it off long enough for the urge to eventually pass. And believe it or not, exploiting people's laziness has been a surprisingly effective customer retention strategy for decades.

    xavier666 ,
    @xavier666@lemm.ee avatar

    Consequences?

    Is the button an unsubscribe button or a button for a guillotine?

    018118055 ,

    "imperative"

    fidodo ,

    I'm sure these lobbyists are being paid millions to prevent buttons that would make them make more money. Makes total sense.

    ZeroCool ,
    @ZeroCool@slrpnk.net avatar

    🥾👅

    Buddahriffic ,

    You can't just sarcastically say a statement that no one else was even implying to... I don't even know wtf you're trying to do here.

    No one is arguing that these buttons will benefit cable companies. All the arguments I've read so far in here boil down to "people should be able to cancel services they don't want even if it fucks the cable companies" sometimes combined with a dose of "and I hope it does fuck them".

    fidodo ,

    I'm not rebuking anyone, I'm making a sarcastic comment targeting the lawyers and their stupid argument.

    The relevant part I'm commenting on is the quote, not the comment.

    toiletobserver ,

    They can oligobble my balls

    Sammy ,
    @Sammy@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Succinct. I concur.

    _sideffect ,

    I agree with the one click for elderly folks... Sometimes they just press things out of nervousness

    pdxfed ,

    My God, how could they ever have it reactivated? Such a dearth of companies selling media these days, they would be absolutely stranded.

    MeekerThanBeaker ,

    But maw-maw will miss the latest episode of NCIS: Des Moines.

    andrewta , (edited )

    Sometimes they are on an older package. Which means they have a much lower monthly bill. If they cancel and then sign back up, they now have a much higher monthly bill. So yeah, a single click actually is bad. But that doesn’t mean the button shouldn’t exist. That just means there should be a couple of prompts. For example, the first one is canceled. The second one is a a screen that shows what they are paying per month, With a section next to it, that shows what they would pay if they signed back up. Then that screen there are two buttons that says no I did not mean to cancel, and the other button that says yes, go ahead and drop the service. That actually makes sense. but I actually agree with the statement that a single button that says cancel and allows you to drop the service in one button is actually very bad.

    _sideffect ,

    Seems lemmy isn't far off from spez's palace after all... Everyone downvotes facts and upvotes their feelings 😂

    You're exactly right about the cancellation of a grandfather clause leading to a higher new rate, btw.

    ABCDE ,

    Why does this not work the other way round?

    TheBat ,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    Ok then how about... TWO clicks? That is an increment of 100%.

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